"Marks," suggested Mr. Marks.
"Marks," Abe went on. "I'll keep it, Mr. Marks, until I can get it, so sure as my name is Abe Potash."
"Of Potash & Perlmutter?" Mr. Marks asked.
"That's my name," Abe said.
"Why, then, your partner owns yet the house next door!" Mr. Marks cried.
"That ain't no news to me, Mr. Marks," Abe said. "In fact, he built that house, Mr. Marks, and I got so tired hearing about the way that house rents and how much money he is going to get out of it that I bought the place next door myself."
"But ain't that a funny thing that one partner should build a house and the other partner shouldn't have nothing to do with it?" Mr. Marks commented.
"We was partners in cloaks, Mr. Marks, not in houses," Abe explained. "And I had my chance to go in with him and I was a big fool I didn't took it."
Mr. Marks rose to his feet.
"Well, all I can say is," he rejoined, "if I got it a partner and we was to consider a proposition of building, Mr. Potash, we would go it together, not separate."